At one time practical jokes and pranks were common. And usually there was at least one practical joker in each community. I am thinking of a man who had an unnatural fear of snakes. He would run through a lake of fire if any kind of snake was chasing him. To him a snake was a snake and something to be feared, whether a copperhead, a rattlesnake, or a harmless garter.

The fellow had a 14-year-old boy who loved practical jokes. So one day the boy decided to have some harmless fun at the expense of his father. To start the ball rolling, he told his father that he saw a snake in the house earlier that day; that he had tried to kill the snake, but it had escaped him and had hidden somewhere in the house.

The very idea of a snake in the house frightened the boy's father. He spent the remainder of the day searching the house for the snake. He combed every square inch of the house, including dresser drawers, closets, and clothing, and any other place where a snake could possibly hide. But no snake was found. So the father was convinced that his son had either lied to him, or the snake had escaped from the house.

Meanwhile, the boy found a green poke stalk about three feet long. He carefully peeled the outside skin from the poke stalk, leaving it slick and slimy. That night, just before his old man went to bed, the boy sneaked the slimy poke stalk under the cover and left it near the foot of the bed, where he thought his father's feet would be.

When the father went to bed, the boy was lying awake, waiting for the reaction. But nothing happened. Apparently the old man's feet hadn't touched the poke stalk, or maybe he had kicked it out of the bed to the floor.

It was sometime later, after the son had fallen asleep, when all heck broke lose. Screaming like a banshee, the old man tore out of the bed, then out of the door, stripping it from the hinges as he went.

But the fun the boy got from his practical joke didn't last. When the old man found it was only a poke stalk in his bed, he put his razor strap to good use.